Received an interesting clipping of a newspaper article which appeared
in the March 27, l999 issue of The Bulletin of Bend, Oregon which was
titled Tule Lake Refuge is in Ecological Trouble. Deals with the chnage
in agricultural practises on lands on an on nearby agricultural land
changed from largely grain production to row crops such as sugar beets,
onions, potatoes which has results in almost l00,000 pounds of
pesticides applied to the land annually. All has resulted in loss of
habitat diversity due to siltation, low water levels, poor water quality
and pesticide and fertilizer residues. Poor water quality is believed to
be responsible for serious declines in fish, amphibians, mollusks,
reptiles and bottom dwelling invertebrates. Even the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service describes Tule Lake N.W.Refuge as a big farm with a big
farm pond. The article continues "it is a mystery why such crops so
heavily dependent on highly toxic pesticides continue to be grown on any
national wildlife refuge. Elimination of row crops would result in the
elimination of some l2 insecticides, l5 herbicides, l7 fungicides and 3
nematocides not used on grain crops and alfalfa grown on national
wildlife refuges.
All this has resulted in recent litigation supported by National
Audubon, Sierra Club, Oregon Natural Resources Council, the Wilderness
Society and many other environmental conservation societies. The
Wilderness Society views environmental problems so serious that it has
placed Tule Lake and Lower Klamath N.W. Refuges among those deserving
the most ecological concern.
On Tule Lake waterfowl and other wildlife has declined precipitously in
the past few decades. The number of waterfowl use days alone has
declined from more than 88 million in l965 to less than 24 million in
l995, and Bald Eagles have nearly disappeared from this refuge.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has admitted that row crops do not
benefit wildlife, and scientific evidence shows, at best, potatoes
themselves have almost no value to wildlife. Therefore,
environmentalists have called upon the agency and the Department of
Interior to enforce their policies to allow only crops of high value to
wildlife and that require minimal or no use of hazardous chemicals.
To learn more of this problem, check the Web Sites of the Wilderness
Society, Sierra Club and Oregon Natural Resouces Defense Council, among
others.
Copies of the bulletin written by John R. Anderson, retired professor of
entomology and the Klamath Basin issue Coordinator for the Oregon
Chapter of the Sierra Club. The E-mail address of the newspaper is:
bulletin at bend bulletin.com.

(I served as the refuge biologist on the Klamath Basin Complex of
Refuges there l955-56, and I'm flabbergasted that the USFWS permits
this. It would be unheard of to the old timers. The article was given me
by a former refuge manager of those refuges in the early 70's, and he
too wonders what has gotten into the USFWS. This is the reason I put it
on Tweeters. All is not well down there)

Gene Kridler, Sequim, Wa.

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